Thursday, October 11, 2012

Planet Turtle


     Planet Turtle is a interactive math program that is based in a community environment with the same interactive features that have them glued to their video games. Students first create their own avatar and then go explore the different areas where they can play, just like in their video games. The student can pick the game but the teacher is actually in charge of the content. Teachers can have the virtual world match up with their instruction and access detailed reports on individual students or as a whole class that shows strengths and weakness. Planet Turtle keeps students engaged and on task while learning and acquiring the proper math skills.Monitoring student's progress the program keeps tracks of the student's performance as well as the skills they need to practice.
    During a math session I would use Planet Turtle in my classroom. I can teach the class by giving oral notes, providing practice worksheets, and visual powerpoints, but to truly involve my class and provide them with the interaction they need in order to become better math solvers, I would incorporate Planet Turtle with my teachings. Being able to control the content and the order of the material on the program allows me as an educator to teach and then provide the practice material to go hand in hand using technology. The program also allows me to access reports and keep track of students' performance individually or as a whole class. With this I am given the feedback on what lessons I may need to go over with as a whole class or where one student may be struggling and needs the extra attention.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Teaching with Educational Websites and Other Online Resources


Focus Question: What is information management and digital content

     A business term generally used to describe how organizations keep track of data for making decisions and setting policies. Information management when applied to teachers and students is the organizing, storing, and administering of all the different kinds of electronic information that need to be handled professionally and academically.

Tech Tool: Delicious

     Delicious is a web based bookmarking tool that organizes all your bookmarks in one place! Using tags one may organizes each link with keywords that cue you to the information on any particular link. Once this website was shown to me personally I was mad I did not hear about it before. In times during research papers, where at school I would find one good site to only go home and not be able to find that same information. With Delicious you can bookmark a site and then be able to open it back up again at any working Internet browser.

Summary & Connection:

   With this chapter we see how beneficial it is to use online resources and websites for information management with resources like Delicious for bookmarking and webquests and virtual field trips that help engage lesson plans. Educational websites make for great teaching resources with lesson plans and classroom activities like PBS Teachers and PBS Kids